Rail Car Barn at Brady Street, 1870s

Cream City Railroad. Photo courtesy of Jeff Beutner.

The first streetcar tracks were laid in Milwaukee in 1860. The first line was soon running along what now is Water St. from the Walker’s Point bridge north to Juneau Ave. This proved to be a very popular form of public transportation.

The routes would quickly expand and in 1874 a new company would be formed, the Cream City Railroad Company. The first route would open in the next year. According to author Joseph Canfield in his book TM -The Milwaukee Electric Railway & Light C.  (long out of print), “The route followed Mason, Jackson, Ogden and Farwell Avenues.” At the Farwell terminus there was a car barn, located on Brady St. This photo shows the car barn with one of the horsecars. It was located on what is now Walgreen’s parking lot.

The railroad would expand eventually extend as far south as Bay View. The Cream City Railroad would be short lived, however, being consolidated into the rival Milwaukee Street Railway Co. in 1890. Electrification would soon arrive, replacing horses as the power source, and the car barn would be demolished.